Jason Breves

Jason employs a variety of fish models (zebrafish, tilapia and Atlantic salmon) to study how pituitary hormones, most notably prolactin and growth hormone, direct the concerted movements of ions and water across osmoregulatory tissues such as the gill, kidney and gut. While we have known that the endocrine system is essential to osmoregulation across vertebrate species, the molecular mechanisms of action remain poorly understood. The basic physiological processes that support osmoregulation are highly conserved across vertebrate species, making fish an excellent experimental model for understanding an array of human diseases associated with osmoregulatory dysfunction. Thus, a major focus of Jason’s research is to develop the zebrafish as a powerful genetic model to study how pituitary hormones participate in developmental kidney patterning and functional regulation. As an organismal physiologist, Jason seeks to connect observations at the cellular and molecular levels with the physiology, development and disease of the organisms he studies.

Jason earned a B.S. from Roger Williams University (2003), a M.S. from the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island (2006), and a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii (2010). Jason joined the Center for Neuroendocrine Studies (http://www.umass.edu/cns/) at the University of Massachusetts as a NIH postdoctoral fellow in 2010.